How Using A VPN When Booking Your Hotel Will Help You Save

Saving even just a couple of dollars a night on a hotel room can feel like a small slice of victory. Hotel costs add up fast — they're one of the biggest expenses on a trip — so figuring out ways to save or finding deals that can enable you to do so is a big deal, especially if you're staying for a lengthy period. One way you can find great rates is by changing your location — no, you don't actually have to get up and go anywhere. You can change your location via VPN.

Before we get into it, we have to understand what a VPN is. It stands for virtual private network. "[It's] a service that protects your internet connection and privacy online," NordVPN says on its site. "VPNs create an encrypted tunnel for your data, protect your online identity by hiding your IP address, and allow you to use public Wi-Fi hotspots safely."

Changing your VPN means you can change the detected location of your computer, which might result in better deals on hotels. This is because hotel booking sites often use dynamic pricing, which is a method of pricing that relies on algorithms and data to determine the cost of your product or service, according to LinkedIn. 

"Dynamic pricing allows you to vary your prices according to different factors, such as customer demand, inventory levels, competitor prices, time of day, seasonality, location, and customer segmentation," LinkedIn continues. This means the price of the same room will likely differ from country to country.

By changing your apparent location using a VPN, you affect some of the data the booking site collects, which impacts the price. This works because your VPN takes the spot of your IP address. You can easily manipulate this once you adjust your VPN and set it to the location of your choice, be it nationally or internationally. You might notice that some locations, for example cities with high populations, result in higher prices for hotels than other areas.

For the best results, change your VPN repeatedly until you find the best price. You can take additional steps to find better hotel prices. Using incognito mode when checking different booking sites can help save you cash. This is largely because each site uses a unique algorithm to help determine its prices. Clearing your cookies can also play a role in getting better deals.

While this hack is great for hotels, it's not the best for other matters related to travel. For example, you won't have as much luck looking for plane tickets as you would looking for a hotel.

Next time you're looking to save on a hotel, take the extra time to play around with your VPN. You could save quite a bit, making the extra effort worth it entirely. You might be able to save $100 or more per night — but don't expect those findings all the time.